How to Choose the Perfect Hair Color for Your Skin Tone

We all have that one friend who just loves to dye their hair. From purple to Daenerys silver, this friend would do it all, picking every color on the color chart. But instead of the trial and error method, wouldn’t it be easier to know your skin tone first, and then determining the right hair colors for your skin tone?

Deciding on the right hair color for your skin tone is not an easy task. A hair color that looks wonderful on your favorite celebrity or a friend might be a total disaster on you. Hair color is quite an important beauty factor. It can either bring out the color of your eyes and complement your skin complexion, or simply leave you looking washed out and awful. So, before you experiment with hair colors, know your skin tone first.

Hair Colors for Your Skin Tone

There are a few tricks which can guide you to understand your complexion better and choose the right hair color. Firstly, clean your face properly with no trace of makeup at all. Stand in a well-lit room which has natural light coming into it. Next, hold a bright colored shirt, like blue or green, against your face and examine thoroughly. Then, hold a different color shirt, say red or yellow and check properly. If your face appeared brighter against the blue or green shirt, then you have a cool-toned skin. If it looked better against the red or yellow shirt, then you have a warm-toned skin.

After you have figured out your skin tone, you need to balance out the color between the hair and the skin. Understand the tones of color that would complement your skin tone. Follow the guide given below to flaunt the perfect hair colors for your skin tone.

Warm-Toned Skin

If you think you are on the warm-toned side, then choose a color that has a cool tone to it. Pick hair colors that have the words “ash” or “cool” in their names. Examples of hair color that work best for warm-toned skin are light honey blondes, medium strawberry and golden blondes, warm chocolate browns, ginger or orange-based reds and dark browns with a hint of rust or cinnamon. If you want to dye them darker then opt for colors like brunette, red, rich black-brown, fawn-colored brunette, or rich reds like amber or auburn.

Cool-Toned Skin

If your skin tone is lighter, then pick a color that has a warm and rich hue. Go for the hair colors which have the words “warm,” “honey” or “chocolate” in their titles. Examples of colors that work best for cool-toned skin are light colors like blonde, flat browns, fawn medium blondes, wine, mahogany, burgundy reds, eggplant, cool dark browns and blue/green black.

Choosing the Best Hair Color Shade

To further help you choose a color to compliment your skin tone, let’s take a look at the best shades of the three principle hair colors—brown, red, and blonde.

Brown Hair Color

Blonde is pretty, but brown is sexy. A brunette is considered classy and confident. If you are not a natural brunette, and want to sport brown hair, then consider your skin tone first because there is a brown for everyone.

For light skin tones, stay within two levels of your hair color. Go for a medium brown hair, with warm hues of red as well as light strawberry tones as highlights. Tip: avoid really dark hair unless you really really want it.

For medium skin tones, there are more options available in brown. Opt for medium brown shades, or you can go lighter or darker from a caramel shade to a rich, auburn shade. Tip: just keep it neutral and avoid going too warm (blackish) or too cool (blondish).

For dark and olive skin tones, the darker the hue, better the look. Stick to the two-shades rule. Trust us, you can pull off deep tones of brown with dark red highlights just well. Tip: avoid going too light as it might look brassy against the skin tone.

Red Hair Color

Natural redheads are rare and they usually have a considerably lighter skin tone. So, if red isn’t your natural hair color, then perhaps you need to be really careful before getting it. It’s a very bold color that receives massive attention and needs intensive care.

For dark skin tones, keep the roots dark and go for blue or purple base reds colors like berry and wine. Avoid orange and warm reds as they might look awkward against the darker skin tone. Rihanna, anyone?

Blonde Hair Color

For pale skin tones like Gwen Stafani or Margot Robbie, opt for platinum blonde or golden blonde. These are the lightest of all the blonde tones, but balance out the look with a pop of deep-colored lips and warm cheeks to avoid looking washed out. Sandy and bronde (brownish blonde) also work on those with fair skin tones like celebrities, Scarlett Johansson and Kate Bosworth.

For medium skin tones, platinum blonde could work with a slight golden or buttery undertone. Subtle ombre on golden-strawberry blondes like Blake Lively, or a honey blonde from Kim Kardashian’s blonde phase will also complement a medium skin tone.

For dark skin tones, a buttery blonde color with dark roots like the one sported by Beyonce or the typical golden blonde, again, with dark roots would really make you look stunning.